NEWS Off-contract Oates faces uncertain future at Broncos

Brisbane veteran Corey Oates has not received a contract offer for next season from the club and says he will almost certainly finish his NRL career a one-club man.

The off-contract 29-year-old winger has played 211 NRL games with the Broncos and has inked one-year extensions late in seasons in the past, but at this stage the club has not opened talks for a new deal.

Oates was asked whether he would be a Bronco in 2025.

"Hopefully," he said.

"As I have said, probably the 20 times you have asked me, I will leave it up to the club.

"I have always made it pretty well known that I am not going to go anywhere. It is always either going to be here or that will be it. If there is something put forward, I will look at it with my family.

"I just want to enjoy the rest of the year and hopefully we can go all the way. I still feel like we can."

Oates is likely to retire if he does not get a new Broncos deal, although he is open to the possibility of a short deal elsewhere.

"It is probably not a definite no but it would be a pretty hard decision for me to leave the club I have been at since I was 14 or 15," he said.

"I have always wanted to be a one-club player and that was always going to be here."

Oates has scored 121 career tries and is third on the all-time Broncos list, just one behind Darren Lockyer.

The lanky winger arrived at the club in 2011, the same year Lockyer retired, before debuting in 2013.

"It is great company to be in," Oates said.

"Locky finished and I started. I found out I would be coming here to play and train as a kid and all I wanted to do was have a training session with my idol growing up.

"He retired the year I got here which was pretty hard to cop but to be up on that board with him is just as good.

"If I can equal or get past him it would be great but I have never been in it for all the accolades for myself.

"It is about playing the game I loved my whole life and being part of a club I grew up watching and supporting."

Oates conceded Steve Renouf's record of 142 tries was probably a bridge too far.

Oates missed training on Monday but said a knee niggle would not keep him out of Saturday night's home clash with St George Illawarra.

"It is just old age. It is actually all good," Oates said.

"It copped a bit of a knock and there was a bit of a flare-up.

"It was always the plan just to give it a rest and keep me ready for the bigger training sessions during the week."

The Broncos who have lost their last five games, only have 17 of their top 30 to pick from against the Dragons due to injury and State of Origin duty.

Oates said that statistic was "confronting" on one level but added the Broncos still had a "great team" and plenty of strike weapons with Deine Mariner, Kotoni Staggs and Ezra Mam in the side.

"For us it about completing, sticking to the game plan and working hard," Oates said.

Canberra Times

 

[vertigo]

Only re-sign him on the proviso he cannot play on the wing anymore.

 

[Wolfie]

If Reynolds was on the park maybe we'd have a better idea. That has been the single biggest issue for us this year.

The biggest question is who is after Reynolds? Are we going to go for another stop gap while we blood Black or are we all in on him?

Hard to know what the plan is mate.

I still don't reckon we have got our retention right and it's showing in our depth as much as our first choice players.

 

[Sproj]

If Reynolds was on the park maybe we'd have a better idea. That has been the single biggest issue for us this year.

The biggest question is who is after Reynolds? Are we going to go for another stop gap while we blood Black or are we all in on him?

It is a shame Black is injured because if this season goes south, I reckon he would have got a few games. Of course I think we will come home with a wet sail but next year, I reckon Black gets plenty of games and let's all hope he turns out like Katoa. Yes that kid is inconsistent but man, what a talent. He's already owning that side and he's only 20.

 

[Sproj]

I don't think Paynos output is really in question, it's his value for money. We would have got better value keeping Flegler on about $800k over Payne even though he isnt as good and use that $400k to put towards a better backrower for example. Team would be stronger overall then imo.

We have to get over this obsession we seem to have of trying to keep every superstar. It's backfiring.

I don't disagree with any of that but not the point I was responding to. Haas isn't sitting their counting the money and slacking off, he's injured - as simple as that.

Would we have benefitted by keeping Flegler over Haas long term? Probably and it would allow us to distribute that money elsewhere but how frustrating would it be to lose him to the Chickens and then them still being able to sign superstar after superstar.

 

[Financeguy]

Whatever we are paying Baker and Gosiewski makes Oates on minimum wage or close to it seem like a steal.

I don't see any downside in having Oates on a min wage type contract with the expectation of playing 2-3 games a year.

A bit off topic for this thread and even though i am a Staggs fan, he needs to take a huge haircut on his next contract or we move him on to free up money to be better spent elsewhere.

Walters and recruitment team needs to put their hand up on a current failure of the 2024 recruitment drive of Baker, Gosiewski and Hunt. Easy to say in hindsight but they should and could have done better

 

[BroncsFan]

Hard to know what the plan is mate.

I still don't reckon we have got our retention right and it's showing in our depth as much as our first choice players.

I think our top 16 is elite and probably top 2/3 in the comp, but it's the quality of the depth that has suffered... it's probably bottom 4 in terms of quality, but I dont really know what other teams depth looks like.

I feel like the club persisted with Pereira and Hoeter for too long, because it was easy. They're 30yr olds that didnt have much NRL experience in the first place, but they wouldve kept them going because theyre bottom dollar players. To be fair Hoeter probably exceeded expectations, but would the coaching staff be confident if he had to play as many games at Arthars did last year... noting Arthars was first drop for any outside backs and with Mariner and Arthars into the starting team Hoeter and Pereira move up a spot.

Our backs depth this year was Oates (but it sounds like he was going to be a hybrid forward / back) and then Hoeter / Pereira... what's the long term plan with that setup?? 2x 30yr old and 29yr old that we dont want to play on the wing anymore... wheres the 18-20yr potential player that Mariner was last year. Where's the 24yr old with some NRL experience that is stuck behind others and cant get an opportunity elsewhere.

Paix is the other issue... it reeks of FOMO and indecisiveness. The club knows Mozer is coming through, so that's 1 spot locked down. I think Paix signed his extension maybe early last year or late 2022? So we already had Billy on the books and Smoothy.

If they wanted Paix then they needed to make a decision on keeping Billy or Smoothy... but instead they've kicked the can down the road and just re-signed them all. There's now potential we lose both Mozer and Paix. I dont think the long term plan for the position was Smoothy and Billy, and it definitely doesnt appear to involve Paix. Even if they offload Paix they still need to show Mozer there's a pathway to first grade and figure out how that position plays out.

 

[Sproj]

Whatever we are paying Baker and Gosiewski makes Oates on minimum wage or close to it seem like a steal.

I don't see any downside in having Oates on a min wage type contract with the expectation of playing 2-3 games a year.

A bit off topic for this thread and even though i am a Staggs fan, he needs to take a huge haircut on his next contract or we move him on to free up money to be better spent elsewhere.

Walters and recruitment team needs to put their hand up on a current failure of the 2024 recruitment drive of Baker, Gosiewski and Hunt. Easy to say in hindsight but they should and could have done better

It definitely feels a step down on previous years but Baker looked a really astute signing as he was pretty decent with the Chickens. Hunt was solid depth and did pretty well prior to injury. Gosiewski was a fringe first grade Cowboy, none of these were bad decisions on the surface. Even Karapani has been pretty impressive despite some clear flaws. Then you have proven but seemingly on a downward trend guys in Oates, Taupau and Pereira.

I think it is just hard to judge in a vacuum though because of the injuries to a lot of the depth as well. On paper, I thought it looked ok this year except in the second row.

But again, look at the injury toll (have missed multiple weeks):
Fullback: Walsh AND Sailor
Wing: Arthars AND Mariner, Pereira and Hoeter
Centre: Staggs, Cobbo, Hoeter and Mariner
Halves: Reynolds AND Madden
Middles: Haas, Baker, Te Kura, Hunt, Carrigan (origin)
Second-Row: Riki, Piakura, Hunt and Gosiewski

Many of the guys above are long termers too. It has been an extremely difficult season injury wise.

 

[Financeguy]

It definitely feels a step down on previous years but Baker looked a really astute signing as he was pretty decent with the Chickens. Hunt was solid depth and did pretty well prior to injury. Gosiewski was a fringe first grade Cowboy, none of these were bad decisions on the surface. Even Karapani has been pretty impressive despite some clear flaws. Then you have proven but seemingly on a downward trend guys in Oates, Taupau and Pereira.

I think it is just hard to judge in a vacuum though because of the injuries to a lot of the depth as well. On paper, I thought it looked ok this year except in the second row.

But again, look at the injury toll (have missed multiple weeks):
Fullback: Walsh AND Sailor
Wing: Arthars AND Mariner, Pereira and Hoeter
Centre: Staggs, Cobbo, Hoeter and Mariner
Halves: Reynolds AND Madden
Middles: Haas, Baker, Te Kura, Hunt, Carrigan (origin)
Second-Row: Riki, Piakura, Hunt and Gosiewski

Many of the guys above are long termers too. It has been an extremely difficult season injury wise.

Yeah, and its real easy to say in hindsight but i don't know, i just think being the Broncos you can cherry pick a bit better. I feel that Baker was always a bit of a hope he breaks out into a good player rather than expecting it to happen. I watched him closely after we signed him with real optimism and most games being left underwhelmed and he has not stepped up this year, simple as that.
I disagree he was pretty decent at the Roosters, he just plugged a hole from what i saw.

Gosieski and Hunt aren't disasters in isolation, and maybe even Baker as well but all 3 being meh i'm sure (or hope) wasnt the desired result. We are not the Tigers or Raiders that have to rely on players no one else wants, we should be cherry picking much better from across the NRL or even SL better than the above 3.

You are right about injuries though, this year has sucked in the spacing of them and not getting consistency across the team and even things like Riki's suspension has just come at bad times. They don't excuse all faults though, we have been underwhelming on the field as well.

 

[Sproj]

Yeah, and its real easy to say in hindsight but i don't know, i just think being the Broncos you can cherry pick a bit better. I feel that Baker was always a bit of a hope he breaks out into a good player rather than expecting it to happen. I watched him closely after we signed him with real optimism and most games being left underwhelmed and he has not stepped up this year, simple as that.
I disagree he was pretty decent at the Roosters, he just plugged a hole from what i saw.

Gosieski and Hunt aren't disasters in isolation, and maybe even Baker as well but all 3 being meh i'm sure (or hope) wasnt the desired result. We are not the Tigers or Raiders that have to rely on players no one else wants, we should be cherry picking much better from across the NRL or even SL better than the above 3.

You are right about injuries though, this year has sucked in the spacing of them and not getting consistency across the team and even things like Riki's suspension has just come at bad times. They don't excuse all faults though, we have been underwhelming on the field as well.

Well if the rumour posted here about Skelton being signed, that's a good start.

I do agree with you though, I feel this is an area that other teams do much better than us, especially Penrith. So often they announce a signing where I'm like, man I wish we singed that guy for depth. I'm talking about your Eisenhuths, Schneiders, Alamotis and Lauries.

The other issue is, we have had some decent guys come through and haven't seemed to realise it - I'm talking about Plath and Hosking. Why we didn't try to keep them I'll never know.

 

[Mr Fourex]

I don't disagree with any of that but not the point I was responding to. Haas isn't sitting their counting the money and slacking off, he's injured - as simple as that.

Would we have benefitted by keeping Flegler over Haas long term? Probably and it would allow us to distribute that money elsewhere but how frustrating would it be to lose him to the Chickens and then them still being able to sign superstar after superstar.

We should remember that Flegs was also a penalty & sin bin magnet.......

 

[Big Del]

has been battling a significant knee injury all year

Significant ?

He had minor surgery , then a month off . Played at a much higher level in Origin 2 , then back to normal transmission .

Will he need more surgery ? Can he regain his top level ? Is he JT13 number 2 ?

Big money = Big expectations .

 

[BroncsFan]

Our team is busted, not lacking in effort. How many games have we had with ALL or even most of Carrigan, Haas, Reynolds, Walsh and Mam on the field at the same time? Right there is your engine room and the three important quarters of our spine.

In regards to this we've only had all 5 of them on the field 3 times this year... Rounds 1 (Loss vs rorter w/Piaks injury) and 2 (Souths win) and then rorters when Reynolds did his bicep... so half a game of Reynolds. Last year we had all 5 of them on the field 21 times, including finals and GF, and won 15 of them.

We've had 4 other games where we've had at least 4 of them on the field

Round 8 vs Tigers (Win)
Round 10 vs Parra (Win)
Round 12 vs Titans (Loss)
Round 18 vs Penrith (Loss)

Full stats below:

All 5 playing: Played 3, 1 - 2 (33.3%)
Any 4 playing: Played 4, 2 - 2 (50.0%)
Any 3 playing: Played 8, 4 - 4 (50.0%) - Ezra and Patty have played in all these, also includes the 4min game from Walsh vs penrith and Reynolds halftime hammy vs melbourne
Any 2 playing: Played 0, 0 - 0 NA
Only 1 playing: Played 1, 0 - 1 (0.0%) - NZ in Round 17)

 

[Mick_Hancock]

Whatever the minimum wage is, sign Oatsey for that.
I know he’s a legend and all, but offer him the minimum.
As a club, we don’t owe anyone anything.

 

[Mick_Hancock]

Depth off contract end of 2025
1. Fletcher Baker
2. Cory Paix
3. Tristan Sailor
4. Blake Mozer
5. Jaiyden Hunt
6. Jack Gosiewski
7. Israel Leota (Top 30 contract next year)
8. Coby Black (NRL contracts has Dev contract then nothing, but apparently he's signed to next year per 1910)

This will be the easiest re-signing in a long time.

Re-sign:
#4
#8

Re-sign on a minimum:
#3
#7

The other 4? Fire all of them into the sun!!!

 

[Scorchie]

You renew it without question. Even if its $200k. There is nobody else, and he will always do his best. He was playing like this 3 years ago and we couldn't have gone that well in '22 without him, he was a beast. Then Drinky smashed his face.

So, on that alone, you'd give him a further year and give him a send off. He is the only Bronco we really have cared would be leaving since Locky, and that's saying something.

 

[Wolfie]

Whatever the minimum wage is, sign Oatsey for that.
I know he’s a legend and all, but offer him the minimum.
As a club, we don’t owe anyone anything.

Doesnt work like that. There has to be give and take. If Oatsey dug his heels in and stayed on the deal he was on, then we dont have enough funds to upgrade certain players who got upgrades last year. So we absolutely owe him to a certain degree. You also cant piss off the group by mistreating good servants and good blokes. Doesn't promote a good culture at the club for a start and we arent strong enough as a club right now imo to risk another situation like after Wayne went.

 

[Mustafur]

Doesnt work like that. There has to be give and take. If Oatsey dug his heels in and stayed on the deal he was on, then we dont have enough funds to upgrade certain players who got upgrades last year. So we absolutely owe him to a certain degree. You also cant piss off the group by mistreating good servants and good blokes. Doesn't promote a good culture at the club for a start and we arent strong enough as a club right now imo to risk another situation like after Wayne went.

it's his problem that he committed to the 1 year contracts, sure injury hurt him on that but that is the risk he took, he is a min wage player if he is exclusively playing wing, his value increases if he can play as a bench backrower that said, I get he was loyal and arguably underpaid especially in 2022 but his value is based on what he is now, the fact is he is not a starter and arguably without injuries he would be playing Qcup atm, that isn't someone we pay much all things considered.

we do have the privilege of getting discounts on his wage salary cap wise so staying top 30 min wage makes alot of sense, but for me that depends on him also being forward depth mainly, I think he does that better then being wing tbh, if he started on that for the back end this year and does well I would agree he is worth a bit more than min wage but I would like to see some runs on the board first.

 

[Mustafur]

Only issue that I have with it is our depth has been tested this year and I think the balance of our squad looks to be off.

We already know that he's struggling to keep up on the wing as it is, so what kind of depth is he providing now... ignoring the minimum wage component, because he is taking up an all important roster spot, but not necessarily able to provide the value.

Rogers has been promoted to the Top 30, along with Coby and Leota, as well as Baker, Gos, Hunt and Paix being on the books.

Where is the room to move to improve our depth if we just end up extending all the current depth guys that we know aren't really ready or that we don't necessarily want to be playing much.

There's 13 roster spots outside your Top 17 that would be representing the Top 30... at the moment the below guys are what we've got outside our Top 16-17... that is 11 guys signed to at least the end of next year, so we've basically got 2-3 roster spots left to fill the rest of our depth... and we still don't really have a back up second rower and Karapani is not even contracted to next year.

The R&R team need to get a move on, because they've got a lot of work to do to get the roster into better shape.

Depth off contract end of 2025
1. Fletcher Baker
2. Cory Paix
3. Tristan Sailor
4. Blake Mozer
5. Jaiyden Hunt
6. Jack Gosiewski
7. Israel Leota (Top 30 contract next year)
8. Coby Black (NRL contracts has Dev contract then nothing, but apparently he's signed to next year per 1910)

Contracted to 2026:
9. Jock Madden
10. Josh Rogers (added to Top 30)
11. Ben Te Kura

Not contracted beyond this year:
- Josiah Karapani
- Delouise Hoeter
- Corey Oates
- Marty Taupau
- Jordan Pereira (retired)

Black will be top 30 next year without question, Mozer due an extension and a bump since Paix will be gone.

I'm not sold on Marty going just yet, I think give it few more games at the level he at now and he can replace Baker who can be offloaded at first opportunity, worth another season in top 30 if so.

Hunt and Gosiewski are duds we need replacements for both asap

Leota for sure not worth keeping there is no way in hell we give him top 30 unless it was already agreed which would be a dumb idea.

Sailor is most likely going to England I don't think either would desire an extension tbh.

If we sign a Half back replacement for 26, We should be able to offload Madden too, he isn't on much and is better then plenty of other NRL sides backup halves.

which would have Rodgers take the Madden role shared with Black, which ideally Black wins to put pressure on the future half.

There is also the issue of Bumping Willison's contract which ideally we do to protect us for the future, we did have Flegs on 650k and for me Willison is easily worth that easily since he is a better player already, it should keep us safe for a few years on him, before the ultimate decision comes between him and Te Kura to keep(I'm being real here as keeping 3 elite forwards is the most we can handle cap wise so being realistic this is what it will come down to as our 3rd since Patty and Haas are on long term contracts).